Switching Over

Heeey you guys!

I decided to switch from Blogger to Wordpress because I understand Wordpress a lot more than Blogger. So check out the new blog:

http://allisonfrasereavis.wordpress.com

the truth

I feel bad saying the past 6 months have probably been the hardest 6 months of my life because nothing really bad has happened. Nobody has died, nobody has been critically ill, we've been financially secure, there haven't been any accidents, etc. etc. I really have nothing to complain about.

So today I'm thankful for my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, to provide prospective. Whenever I think, "Jeez, life is really hard right now!" I can turn around and see everyone being thankful. What a great holiday.

The other side of the J CREW story

The downside of the J CREW sale was that I had seen the movie Contagion, aka A Public Service Announcement to Wash Your Hands and Stop Touching Your Face, a few days before going. I couldn't help but think that if one person had a contagious, deadly disease and shopped at the sale, all of Durham would be dead. Think of all the clothes one person would touch at a sample sale, then how many other people would touch the clothes he/she touched, etc. etc.

But I wasn't too scared, because after the movie I played Pandemic with friends (a board game where you either save or fail-to-save the world from 4 strains of a deadly virus) and we totally won. Plus, I work at the 2nd best school of public health, so maybe my connection to the dean would be beneficial given a dire situation. But maybe not.

J Crew Sale

This post is going to sound very materialistic and I don't even care.

Sample sales. I believe I had heard of them on various blogs.Wednesday night, I experienced one. It started in the morning when one of my coworkers came in excited. She was wearing a 100% J Crew cashmere cardigan that she had bought for 10 dollars. In Durham, J Crew had rented out an old Borders and filled the place with tables. On top of the tables were three boxes, below the tables two boxes. Each box was crammed with unsorted clothes -- there were children's clothes next to women's sweaters next to men's pants. No organization at all. BUT IT WAS CHEAP. All shirts and pants $10, dresses $10 or $15, sweaters and shoes $20.

It was nuts. Everyone in my office left right after work. Mae's strategy was to pick a corner and put everything in her size in a box. Angelica and my's strategy was to grab anything in a color we liked. (No surprise, everything I bought was a bright color. I think she was a little smarter.) A woman handed us a white trashbag when we walked in, and I stuffed clothes in and occasionally weeded out. There were no dressing rooms and no mirrors, so women were stripping down in public and men kept asking their significant other's opinion. I stuck to dresses and cardigans, because buying pants is a stressful business for me with mirrors and dressing rooms; I can't imagine blinding buying a pair. I wore my dresses around over my clothes while I picked through other boxes, trying to make sure the dress was worth buying.

But the best part of all was when I got home. I looked online to see how much some of the stuff originally cost. One of my 15 dollar dresses is still selling online for 250. When will I wear the four fancy dresses I bought? Maybe never. Or maybe I'll start dressing up for work like it's a glamorous wedding. Like I said, I don't even care.

Football

Okay, I think the universe listened to my complain and I am generally off blog duty at work. (Probably because I wasn't so great at it.) And that brings back the desire to blog again.

This past Saturday, two of our Wilmington friends came up to go to a UNC football game. It was great because we had this set up before we even moved, and it's been something I've looked forward to every time I've missed Wilmington. And in many ways it was a perfect day... pumpkin pancakes at Elmo's, 75 degree degree weather, sunny enough for a sunburn. Not to mention that Julie and Aaron are some of our most favorite people!

But let me tell you. UNC football. What a disappointment.

I've never been to a football game that wasn't Arkansas football. Not another college, not NFL. I barely went to high school football games. (And I certainly never paid attention to the game when I did. I'll have to tell you about my ignorance in another blog post.)

A picture Julie took. We were there early because that is something the four of us are good at. Well, Tim is usually on time, but he's the odd one out in this crew.

For example, at Arkansas, we divide the crowd up and one side screams "Arkansas" and the other side screams "Razorbacks." This is a fun activity. At UNC one side yells "Tar" and the other side yells "Heel." Could you think of two more awkward words to yell? Whenever I hear the word Tar by itself, I think of the terrible things people have done with tar, and yelling Heel just sounds hillbilly, and is hard to scream with emphasis. (Actually, at Florida they yell blue/orange, and orange is also really awkward to yell, but UF makes up for it with another zillion awesome traditions.)

Also, one of the things they do to get the crowd pumped up on the third down is to show a picture of the historic bell tower on campus and make a loud bell sound. Talk about intimidating. "You guys, it's serious, that bell is ringing." 

And UNC went down 14 without ever having possession. A fumble on the kickoff. They eventually came back (not for the win), but my heart wasn't into it. I doubted they could pull an Arkansas and win after a 19 point deficit. 

The band did play excerpts from movies at halftime. Who can't get excited about awesome movie scores? 

Whelp

I admit, I've been avoiding my blog. I have to blog at work-- not my own words, but post someone else's blog. It seems like a simple enough task, yet it is the most dreaded work task. I wake up on Monday mornings in terror because Monday is blog day.

I have started to really love my job, so I don't want to give you the wrong impression. I think it's just the fact I've made several typos/mistakes on the blog, and it's always a rush to get it done before noon because it requires the approval of a zillion different people, and it has to go through a zillion different drafts before it is done, which means I'll probably make even more typos. So why don't I just catch the mistakes I make? I wish I knew the answer. I think I've gotten so nervous about the whole ordeal, I'm adding to the trauma.

So whenever I think of something I want to write on my blog, I think OMG BLOG BLOG BLOG, and avoid it. Not that you're waiting around for me to post, but that's the explanation.

Lambeau, 3.5 months

Our 32 pound dog has officially received all of his vaccines and is ready to conquer the world.

What sets Lambeau apart from other dogs:

1) He squeals and grunts and wags his whole body when he is happy to see you.

2) He will spend a lot of time trying to crawl in your lap if you are sitting down. (Literally, crawl. He's very agile on two legs, and then will try to push himself up from there.)

3) He loves all of the dogs at the dog park. His favorite thing to do is wrestle in holes that he digs under benches. When it's time to go, he runs to the very back so you have to chase him.

4) He's a ladies man, and will follow women around before he gives men the time of day. (He likes men too, but he prefers the ladies.)

 Noble dog

 Shark dog.

Cuddle dog

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY JTT

You're the only one of my celebrity childhood crushes still alive (RIP Jonathan Brandis, RIP Brad Renfro), so there is a lot of force behind that happy birthday.

My new favorite activity

CONTRA DANCING.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNx6t7VZe9o&feature=related

They offer this once a month where I live! You dance up and down lines, so while technically you have a partner, you will actually dance with every person in the line. There was a man celebrating his 83rd birthday at the dance I went to on Friday night. He danced up and down the line as well as anybody.

Another reason I like it is because it reminds me of the Yule Ball in The Goblet of Fire. This also happens to be the one scene I've seen the most of the Harry Potter movies, because somehow, every time ABC Family is having their marathon (so, pretty much every weekend), Tim turns it on right as the dance scene begins. Which is fine with me, because I love the dance scene. But I love contra dancing more.

Anniversary

Apparently the father of modern Southern cuisine has a restaurant in Chapel Hill. So we went there for our anniversary.

the hello-humidity hair

the we-just-moved-and-I'm-a-chill-guy scruff

It was delicious. But North Carolina barbeque is always disappointing to me. Even when it's prepared in the tradition of the father of modern Southern cuisine.

But maybe I'm just missing Wilmington.

The Trauma of Moving

First of all, I'm thankful for parents who realize their adult children need help moving, and continually offer to help us move our stuff. So, thanks David, who flew out to North Carolina to help us move, and thanks Dad, who offered to fly out and help enough times I felt fully confident we would somehow make it three hours northwest to Chapel Hill. It really made me feel loved.

So that was the good part.

The bad part was how far away our future apartment was, and how there were so many steps so we couldn't use a dolly. The bad part was also the truck wasn't big enough so we had to make two trips. And then, how the first night in Chapel Hill, Tim got a migraine, and how the second through seventh night, he had a severe case of the hives. The bad part was how heavy our desk is, and how my book addiction got out of control in grad school, and how all of those things went to the third floor.

I don't want to dwell on these bad things, because ultimately they weren't that bad. I just want to document them, so the next time I move and I think, "Jeez, the last move was so much easier," God can strike me with lightning.

Wedding Season

Since the last post, I have attended three weddings in three different states. And since today is my third anniversary, let me give three reasons I love weddings.

1) Meeting the family. In this day and age, people don't live close by their parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. I love watching the families my friends came from and seeing the personality genes they can't outrun. If it's a family member's wedding, well then, I just like being around my family.

2) Dressing up. I love dressing up for a good occasion. I'm very thankful we live in a more casual society than our grandparents did, but I sometimes miss seeing people in their Sunday Best (which now is usually jeans and a polo shirt. Unless you go to a church for old souls, which we did in Wilmington. We were the casual people because Tim did not wear a tie and I did not wear a suit jacket.). I think I'm going to start hosting formal dinners where we will eat hamburgers in heels.

3) Cutting loose. I love to dance, but I'm not very good at it. Yet I feel that at weddings all the dancing is supposed to be bad anyways, so you might as well hop your heart out to "Cotton Eyed Joe." When weddings don't have dancing, it's still a blast because there is more conversation and it's so easy to tell everyone how happy you are to be there, how much you love everyone and the world, and it's all true. Usually abundantly saying such sentimental things in normal conversations comes across as cheesy, but at a wedding, cut loose and let them fly.

Of course, there are deeper reasons I love weddings, and I didn't even mention wedding cake, which is one of my top loves in life. I know a lot of my generation doesn't see the point in marriage, which makes me  sad (and not because I don't get to come to the reception).

Also, I barely took any pictures at these weddings I went to. At the last one, I didn't take a single picture all weekend. I think I go through picture taking mood-swings.

I often find myself wondering if there is any stage in life where you don't have to make the hard, uncomfortable decisions. I can't wait until my life is made up of decisions like which aqua aerobics class to attend, or whether I should read a fiction or a nonfiction book next. I'd guess that stage in life isn't worry-free either, but it's the dream I hold onto.

Also in this dream, the Oxford comma still exists. (I don't care about Pluto. That can remain un-planeted in my opinion.)

Wedding Weekend!

Some things I love

I love my family. I love summer. I love free concerts. I love tribute and cover bands. I love the Cape Fear River. I love sitting outside. I love sunsets. I love wearing sundresses/skirts. I love diet coke. I love Kilwin's ice cream.

All of these things happened on the night pictured above.

Serpentarium

omg. The Serpentarium. These are not fake animals.

Dad, Tim, and I went this Saturday. I had read a fabulous essay about the place, but had never ventured down. What a mistake! We went an hour before feeding time (which happens every Saturday), so we stuck around to see several snakes get fed. I kid you not, we witnessed a python eat a rabbit, and two snakes (including the yellow dude up above) get in a fight when the yellow one tried to steal a rat from another snake.  The feeder literally got into the cage, grabbed their heads, and pulled them apart (they both had their mouth on the rat). WILD. But I'll spare you the graphic pictures.

Also, we saw two snakes yawn and one rattler seriously rattle its tail. And the owner of the place? Practically the worlds leading expert on bushmasters. Incredible.

Eating

This post is only going to be interesting to me, just to warn you.  I'm getting super nostalgic about leaving Wilmington, so I want to publicly document some of my favorite things about my favorite town.

There are three things I especially love doing in Wilmington. The top of the list is going to the beach. The bottom of the list is walking downtown/sitting by the river. Eating is in the middle.

So for today's post, my top 5 favorite restaurants:

1) The Little Dipper: a local fondue place with a lot of character and $8 ladies nights.
2) The Basics: a southern food establishment downtown that has the best brunch ever.
3) Sweet and Savory: I'll forgive them for naming my favorite sandwich "Babe the Pig." (Although I tell them every time the name bothers me. Who wants to eat that cute little pig?) Also, it's close to the beach.
4) Our Crepes and More: a crepe place. All of the workers are French, so I'm sure you couldn't find a better crepe, even across the pond.
5) Flaming Amys: a burrito place. It has the most character of any burrito place I've ever been to. Sorry, Flying Burrito.

Airlie Concerts

This past Friday, Tim and I went to a concert at Airlie Gardens (the "Quintessential Southern garden in Wilmington") with our church group known as "The Situation," "The Contemporaries," or "The Aging 20/30s Group Which Now Has 40's In It."

The garden hosts concerts twice a month in the summer. These concerts compete with two other free concerts that also happen on Friday night. One is downtown, where you can buy expensive beer and listen to awesome cover and tribute bands while the sun sets on the Cape Fear River. The other concert is near the movie theater, with blowup castles for kids to bounce around on, and a few other planned activities.

You have to pay to get into Airlie. It's a private garden, after all. And the music is mostly forgettable. But there is something so wonderfully North Carolinian about the experience. If someone wanted to see the Old South's existence in modern days, these concerts would be the place to spot it.

You had to ride a trolley to get there. People brought tables and tablecloths for their picnics. They brought expensive wines and cheese and fruits to picnic on. People drank their wine out of glass goblets. Women wore dresses, and children ran around in sun hats. Everyone made the rounds, socializing with the neighbors they spotted around the tree, or they networked in the one area reserved for First Citizen Bank's customers. The whole field was full of people, and you could smell the gentle salt breeze from the cove beside the gardens. If you were to walk around the gardens, you might see an alligator or ibis or some other fantastic coastal or southern animal.

Our group was no so sophisticated. Some of us wore dresses, but we sliced our cheese on the cooler lid and passed it around with a bag of pretzels. We bought frozen ice that turned our teeth red. After it was over, some of us went to eat at a Mexican restaurant.

And really, I prefer the downtown concerts. But I've lived in the South my whole life and never felt quite the environment I did at Airlie. For a few seconds, it made me nostalgic for old Savannah (a time I've never experience). It's funny how moving away from a place can do that to you.

Happy Father's Day!

to a truly wonderful dad! (A picture from back in the day.)

 And to my father-in-law! (also truly wonderful!)

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

We move in 1 month!

The only thing I am excited about is packing up my books, because that means I get to reorganize them.

a dad funny

http://www.fraseology.com/Site/Fraseology/Entries/2011/6/11_Great_Scott%21.html#

A Misinterpretation

Legion. The name of the soccer field. And...

Luke 8:30: Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him.

Soccer Season

As you might have picked up, Tim has become a fan of soccer since we've lived in Wilmington. It's growing on me.  For one, I really don't like baseball. I used to like going to baseball games because it was fun to sit outside and be entertained, but even that has been pushing it lately. Cue soccer, which has a similar season to baseball, yet actually has action at all times and doesn't go on thirty innings if no one has scored.

For two, I like the idea of soccer. Rowdy fans across the world! Men wearing scarves for their team! Extreme national pride! Trading to other countries and breaking down borders! People SINGING the whole game. They (usually) don't do that in America, but imagine how much fun that would be if you got to sing the whole game!

For three, Wilmington has the lowest level professional team. Cary, which is about 30 minutes from Chapel Hill, has the next level up professional team. And soccer games are the same price as going to the movies, but you get to talk and people watch during them.

 Here is a picture of every mascot the Wilmington Hammerheads could get their hands on, dancing to 50 cent for the birthday of the main mascot, Sledge. And America's Best Dance Crew: Bert, Ernie, The Easter Bunny, Another Random Shark, Little Ceasar, Sports Clip Guy, and who knows who that other dude is.

I really just can't stop saying

how much I love Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Ricks = Best Bakery Ever

Look! It's my thesis looking like a real book. But it's a CAKE! And unlike most decorative cakes, this cake tasted dang good. There will never ever ever ever ever ever be a bakery that holds a place in my heart like Rick's. And I even worked in a bakery!

Also, major props to my parents, who ordered the amazing cake, and organized the whole party weekend. I'm going to graduate every three years.

Where everybody knows your name

4 hogsbreath hamburgers, please.

A big congratulations

First order of business is to send out a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Kari and Nick who are engaged. Kari's ring is absolutely stunningly gorgeous, and Nick is the best drummer on Rock Band that I've ever seen, and is also a wonderful guy. Yay! Excitement! 

Also, I have the most supportive family ever. Consider this like a museum exhibit of people I lean on. They all came to Fayetteville, AR to eat dinner with me, all because I spent three years trying to be a better writer. And I love them.

Jesse Baker

One of the bummer parts of living so far away from Arkansas is that you don't get to meet a BFF's child until he is 4.5 months old. And just think of how much he'll change until the next time I see him!

Jesse is much more adapt at taking a wrap around picture, as demonstrated here. He is the only person looking in the correct place. Allison and I are focusing on the image that the front of my camera shows.

Current Mood

Remember how Xanga used to have "current mood" and "listening to" or "currently watching," etc.? Well, right now I am watching Jurassic Park. I remember my dad reading this book out loud me. I remember getting to watch the movie in theaters even though I wasn't 13. I remember going as a very realistic dinosaur that Halloween. I could keep listing all of the positive memories I have of this movie, because they are numerous.

But instead I'll tell you about the adventurous job interview I had today. Thankfully, I decided to leave early for Chapel Hill, because there were a few setbacks. First I typed in the address on TomTom only to discover the street wasn't recognized by the GPS (thank goodness I checked before I got on the road). So I went in and wrote down the directions, then made it to the first gas station outside of town to discover I had left my purse at the apartment when returning for directions (thank goodness I stopped at the first gas station instead of one an hour down the road). So then I had to drive the 15 minutes back to Apt. E, then stopped at a different gas station further down the road, only to stop in a stall with no toilet paper. But I made it!

In the meantime, partly trying to find a job, but mostly the music from Jurassic Park makes me really want to do something big in life. Either that, or live in Universal Studios and ride the JP ride everyday. LA or Orlando, I don't even care.

ADDITION: Jurassic Park derives about .1% of the conflict from romantic tension. That's amazing and wonderful. It's nice to have a movie where the two lead characters are in a happy relationship the whole movie.

SECOND ADDITION: My dad just emailed me this fun YouTube video about mistakes in the movie. Because as much as I love the movie, I also love finding mistakes in movies. Who doesn't?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1D-_BjYv_k&feature=player_embedded#at=53

Wolverine

I happened to meet Theron the first week he came to work at our dear apartments. He said he had just gotten out of a long-term relationships, then followed his brother from California to North Carolina. He once owned his own construction company, but because of the change of events, he was now the head maintenance man of our complex.

But I know the real story. He's Wolverine. Everything about him looks like Wolverine. He has the sidechops (that's really the best way to describe them), the swagger walk, the brown hair/eyes, the grizzled look, he's the perfect age, etc. Plus, his name is Theron.

I don't have a picture of Wolverine because I'm scared to sneak a picture. But I've decided to make that my mission before moving in mid-July. In the meantime, I'll show you a picture of the first hibiscus bloom of 2011 (which happened way back in early March).

I'm blogging a lot lately. That's what being done with school and unemployed/part-time-working-from-home does to you.

Another reason I like Tim

All of my favorite friends have obsessive personalities. Right now Tim is on a River Monsters kick. Not only is it cute to watch him scare himself (and me) with all of the nasty dudes out there, but it also makes me feel better about the weird things I get stuck on.

A turning moment

also known as: The Day The Beach Was Too Cold, part II.

Anna had told the car tune-up place she didn't need her car for the day (because we were going to the beach), so after our trip to the beach Antarctica, we still had hours to kill. We watched Dogs: Decoded (Nova), How Smart Are Animals (Nova again), and Oceans (Disney, and far less satisfying than Nova or Planet Earth). Because that is how exciting our friendship is once school is over and we are both unemployed.

But seriously, you guys, How Smart Are Animals changed my life. I am pretty sure I will think back in twenty years and remember the moment I found out dolphins are going to take over the world. You'll have to watch it for yourself (its on Netflix instant watch), but it basically went something like this:

To test to see if dolphins were truly intelligent or just following orders dumbly, two dolphin trainers taught their dolphins sign language, two of which were "create a trick" and "together." So at the same time, side-by-side, the trainers told two dolphins to create a trick together.

The dolphins went underwater, talked their little dolphin talk, then rose to the surface on their backs, and lifted their tails AT THE SAME TIME.

Did you get that? Dolphins have their own language, and are just humoring humans. The time is short before they say, "So long and thanks for all the fish."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojydNb3Lrrs

(This post is partly inspired by Towel Day.)

The Saga of the Pea Green Bookshelves

In college, Kari bought a black entertainment center, so my roommate contribution was to buy two black media shelves to store things for the entertainment center. They were cheap, bought more for the functionality of a few years of moving around rather than permanence. And they've served us well, but at Christmas we bought a brown entertainment center, which doesn't match black shelves. I thought about selling them, then ended up just moving them.

But then I started thinking, since I'm not so very attached to them, maybe I could paint them my favorite color and love them. (My favorite color is the shade of green of this flower vase.)

So I painted them. First with a spray paint, which turned a perfect shade of green. But after barely making a dent with two cans of spray paint, and upon discovering that all paint stores were out of that shade of spray paint, I decided to match the color with normal paint.

 Except, of course, I didn't pick the exact same color.  I'm not such a fan of how they turned out. The green is a little too yellowish green for me, and reminds me this much of baby food.

I haven't put the shelves back, so you'll have to use your imagination.

But that's okay! Because its not like its a completely heinous color, and the shelves were never expensive to begin with, so they are what they are.

And because I had to unload all of my photo albums to paint the shelves, I figured I would go ahead and pick them up, since photo albums are not anything of daily use. So, SADNESS, here are our first packed boxes:

The countdown begins!

6 months until the new Muppet movie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CloKbXtD28&feature=player_embedded

We aren't undergraduates

Anna and I went to the beach today while her car was getting work done. It was a beautiful day, sunshine and a high of 80, but Wrightsville Beach is windy. Always. I know days are Very Windy when my plants ten miles inland get knocked down, and today they tumped over multiple times.

But we didn't know it was that windy until we got to the beach. Slowly we added layers until we were sitting with all of our clothes on and towels wrapped around the other exposed parts. I looked around the crowded beach and saw ten zillion shirtless guys and girls in bikinis just lying there without a care in the world. No one looked cold. Not even a little bit. And Anna and I were contemplating going home, since we just weren't prepared mentally or physically for being cold in the beginning of summer.

"Can't anyone acknowledge that it's just the least bit cold out here?" I asked, mostly to myself, secretly wanting an answer.

Of course no one did. There were too many rays to soak, wind and cold or not. We went home anyway, because we live at the beach and can take it for granted every now and then.

Tapas

Two days ago, my friend Rachel organized a tapas excursion. According to wikipedia, the serving of tapas is to encourage conversation because people aren't so focused on the meal in front of them. The restaurant said that tapas were actually salty food items served on top of wine glasses that would increase patron's thirst and want to make them buy more wine.

With that said, I LOVE IT. When I rule the world, all meals will either be tapas or fondue. Or else it will be mandated that meals will be abolished and people will just snack throughout the day. I just love sharing food, only eating a few bites of this and that, venturing to try things I wouldn't have normally, rich foods, etc.

Signs of the End Time

In case you missed it, the world might be ending soon (May 21st, to be precise). With this in mind, our atomic clock has been going crazy. About a week ago, we noticed that it was off by a few hours, although the minute hand was still correct. This means it was still pretty functional in my mind, because I am rather anal about knowing what time it is, and the minute hand is what I look at most often, since I am generally aware of the hour.

Then yesterday, I heard what I thought was was either the stove clicking or a phone vibrating, but what turned out to be our atomic clock speeding through time. The minute hand was going around about twice as fast as the second hand normally would. Then it stopped very definitively at 8:04, although it was 4:30 in the afternoon. After this episode, it keep accurate but incorrect time (as in, a minute was a minute, an hour was an hour, etc.).

So that night, Tim changed it back to the correct time.But no avail. It was incorrect about 4 hours later.

Has anybody else seen signs of the end time?

Weekend Visitors

The past weekend we enjoyed a lovely trip from Karen and Mema. I think you could sum the trip up as we ate a lot, we shopped a lot, and we played a lot of cards. What more could a person want to do? It was delightful.

And Wilmington is really the best place to eat. I know everyone talks about the food in Italy and France, but I  think Wilmington could give them a run for their money. Someone told me that Wilmington was in the top 20 cities of restaurants to people ratio, and most of these restaurants are local. So if you haven't been yet, come to Wilmington this summer for a free beach vacation and delicious food. No really! Come on! It's your last chance!

Hello free time

This week is a holiday in South Korea (HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!) and all of my classes, parties, and thesis responsibilities cease to exist, and we no longer have company, thus yesterday I had a whole day to do nothing but what I wanted to do for the first time in what felt like 10 years.

So last night I watched a random show for the heck of it, and I happened to land on Extreme Couponing. Talk about a stressful experience. For one, these people spend hours planning their shopping experience. I am pretty neutral about grocery shopping (unless going to the Wilmington Wal-Mart, in which case, I hate it, although I recognize it as a necessary evil). I occasionally make a list, but usually only if Tim has requested certain things, which makes it mandatory I'd forget something otherwise. I mean, I don't even make lists for things I want to cook. I usually just bring in the whole cookbook. I admire these people for spending hours planning their purchases, but I think I felt a fraction more anxiety than respect.

Anyway, for two, these people have to stockpile a zillion things in their houses. I wanted to clean out my cabinets just thinking about it. For three, now I feel like I'm spending way too much on groceries. These people could get $1,000 tabs down below 50 dollars.

There was one guy who couponed to send supplies to the troops, and that I could get behind, because there really would be a reason to buy 23 tubes of toothpaste. And like I said, I admire these people on some level, but I don't think I'll be watching the show again (unless it happens to be on and I won't be able to look away).

Hey you guys!

I am completely done with my MFA degree.

Unlike the dinosaurs...

Jesus is alive!

Happy Easter Weekend!

The Beckham Experience

My friend Virginia asked me how the Beckham experience was. In a word: rowdy.

Here's the article that describes it best. I won't go into it in my own words because, well, I don't know that much about soccer. I was, however, a little disappointed that Landon Donovan didn't play, because while I don't know soccer, I do know celebrities.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/avi_creditor/04/10/mls.snaps/index.html?eref=sihp

 Becks wore sleeves the whole time, so you couldn't see his tats. Also, doesn't his hair seem longer than normal?

Tim and I were done tromping around DC around 4:30 in the afternoon, and the game was at 7:30. All I wanted at that point was a cupcake. We thought about finding a restaurant or something around Foggy Bottom, but instead we decided to head to the stadium and relax in the restaurants/bars/cafes/etc. that would be around there.

Only we arrived at the stadium and there is nothing around. DC United did have a pretty fun tail-gaiting section, and I think that was the point where we could most vividly see ourselves living in DC and hanging out with hipsters who wear soccer scarves and play corn-hole before games. But I was also cold and tired, and maybe this much cranky about the general lack of cupcakes in the area. Nevertheless, a fun experience.

TFA Explained

I feel like I should be super secret about this post, because I know from experience that blogs where people discuss Teach for America come up on Google blogs and get a million hits, so they rise even higher, because insane people like me are out combing the internet for a clue, any clue, about how to get what we want (in this case, TFA).

So anyway, I applied for TFA out of college and didn't make it. I applied for an MFA program and did make it. Going to UNCW is in the top 5 best decisions of my life (also on the list: marrying Tim, attending the University of Arkansas, studying abroad in Australia, and getting involved with the Wesley Foundation).

But now that UNCW is about to end, I am faced with the prospect of working another minimum wage job, as I have done so often here in Wilmington. I thought TFA was a good alternative, and I have to admit, I wanted to avenge that failure. I made it this time, and they placed me in my preferred region, Eastern North Carolina, and my preferred grade, high school. The perfect place for me to have a job that used my education and Tim to go to his favorite grad school.

And it was so nice to be around TFA people. They were articulate, they sent funny yet moving emails, I could hear the passion in their voice, and the whole thing really felt life-affirming. Let me say it now: I'm glad these people are out there in our education systems.

But I turned them down. Everyone I talked to worked 10+ hour days. That should be good news to all of you out in cyber world... these people are completely dedicated to change! And I know that I was accepted to TFA because I have the same personality as everyone I talked to. I love teaching, and when I take up a cause, I can't let it go.  I go insane and thrive in that type of atmosphere. I could happily work 14 hour days and be satisfied; the search for the great achievement is completely thrilling. But, I'm dedicated to Tim. And to my church. And I want to start running again. And I want to have free afternoons, to make up for all of the free afternoons I didn't have in grad school.  And what I want right now is to try to be a writer, which requires being selfish about large chunks of time. TFA doesn't have room for people who want to be selfish with huge chunks of time. I know they have a waitlist of people who will be completely unselfish with their lives. I made it off the waitlist for UNCW, and I'll be eternally grateful to the one person who turned it down and gave me their spot.

So maybe I'll be waiting tables in Chapel Hill, because I'll be competing with 500,000 UNC graduates for the same jobs. But that's okay. I'm still young, and if I want to be a teacher, I can get a certificate with one more year of school.



Lately I've been a lot more personal in my blog. I don't think this will be a new thing, but Tim and I are going through a lot of changes right now. So here is our transition stage, laid out for all to see!

defense: passed

What I was most afraid of was that I would feel discouraged and not want to work on the ideas I already had bouncing around for things I wished to do with my manuscript. I don't feel that at all. I feel like I could write all day! All night! All weekend, all week, all month, all of my life!

Horray for those momentary highs!

The School Saga from A to Z

It was a long process. Before our trip to DC this past weekend, Tim had narrowed it down to five schools. 

George Washington: Because of the proximity to DC, Tim would have better job prospects for national jobs. It is the most expensive, but he had a campus job offer that would reduce tuition by 95%. But, no one had ever gotten the degree and certificate he wanted to get at the same time, so he was a little nervous about how it would work.

George Mason: They have Emergency Management and it also has the DC advantage, but it is still extremely expensive. We felt the campus and Fairfax was nice, but nothing really screamed us to live there. It's also a very large program.

After the trip to DC, these were eliminated. So it came down to...

North Texas: They have the emphasis he wants (Emergency Management), and is the perfect proximity to our beloved parents. It would probably be easier to find a job within Arkansas driving distance after graduation. But, Denton is Denton, which does not compare to Chapel Hill or Wilmington. 

UNCW: This is in our most favorite town in the whole wide world (it only beats Fayetteville by .3 points, and only because it had a beach. If everyone I loved in Arkansas would move to Wilmington, my life would be perfect, also because Wilmington is getting a Whole Foods and possibly a Trader Joe's, and it has First Presbyterian Church and a zillion wonderful local restaurants.) It didn't, however, have Emergency Management.

UNC: This is the smallest program. They offered Tim a scholarship. People called him to talk about his decision, and he was able to meet several students, all of whom he liked. He would be able to get the degree and certificate without problem, and its well-known for its local government emphasis, which is what Tim was interested in (as compared to national, ie DC schools).

So, because we couldn't put UNC's program in the town of Wilmington in the proximity to Arkansas of Denton, we chose UNC.

Go Tar Heels!

Happy Birthday Timoteo